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Bill: Buy My Ruffles? (4/13/98)
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We have to admit, as time goes on, we're less and less outraged by Microsoft's monopolistic moves and more and more entertained by them. Perhaps it's because they've seen just how little the government is doing to stop them; for whatever reason, though, their recent moves and statements have been so brash and shameless, they're really quite amusing. Take, for instance, their latest ploy to gain yet more market share for Internet Explorer: they're bribing small ISP's with free copies of Windows NT Server if those ISP's agree to "convert" at least 500 subscribers to IE. Read all about it at CNET.
Now, if this isn't a blatant example of Microsoft using its operating system software to establish a monopoly in another market, we don't know what is. Of course, Microsoft group product manager Bill Koszewski denies that, claiming that a couple of copies of NT server per ISP is "pretty limited" in a financial sense. Here's where it gets good: he claims this promotion is "like taping a package of snack chips to a bottle of Coke." Apparently Mr. Koszewski brown-bags it instead of buying lunch in the cafeteria, because he seems to think that a bag of chips costs about the same as a license for Windows NT and all the trimmings: about $1800. That's a lot of quarters for the vending machine, just to get a bag of Fritos.
In our personal opinion, Microsoft's giving away expensive software in order to establish a monopoly, and that's dumping. Dumping is illegal. Of course, given the Justice Department's super-tentative moves towards restraining Microsoft's anticompetitive behavior, we doubt it'll even come up. Heck, at this point we almost wouldn't want it to stop-- we wouldn't give up such great quotes for the world.
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SceneLink (624)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/13/98 episode: April 13, 1998: The Dalai Lama doesn't make the cut of "easily recognizable" personalities for Apple's Asian "Think Different" campaign. Meanwhile, Microsoft finds yet another way to use Windows to flood the market with Internet Explorer (and drive up the price of snack foods at the same time), and the new Wall Street Powerbooks have more in common with flying saucers than we previously believed...
Other scenes from that episode: 623: No Hello Dalai (4/13/98) Ah, geez, so much for thinking different... Not long after hearing that Apple had snagged the Dalai Lama's image for use in its semi-controversial ad campaign, we're now being told that the spiritual leader of Tibet is being dropped from the campaign in China... 625: We Like Shiny Objects (4/13/98) Just a quick note on the eagerly-awaited Wall Street Powerbooks, as mentioned in Mac the Knife's latest missive from L.A. County Jail. The Knife's jailhouse compadres confirm the dates that AtAT received from various unsavory sources, by claiming the release date for these sleek new laptops is May 6th...
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